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May 19, 2009

If You Thought Donald Rumsfeld's Use of Bible Quotes Was Bad...

On Monday, GQ Magazine dropped a minor political bombshell when it published a feature article by Robert Draper about the disaster that was Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld. The piece led off with the revelation that Rumsfeld used quotes from the Bible and "Crusades-like messaging with war imagery" on the cover sheets of the daily Worldwide Intelligence Update during the Iraq war in an apparent effort to make a stronger personal connection with President Bush.

The fallout from this piece, and from the leaked pictures of the cover sheets, has not been as major as one might expect from the revelation that government officials at the absolute highest levels were treating the Iraq War as if it were a religious crusade. Maybe that's because most Americans already assumed that George W. Bush saw it that way when he told two top Palestinian leaders that "God would tell me, 'George go and end the tyranny in Iraq,' and I did." Maybe it's because so many other members of the GOP, like Michael Steele, Sarah Palin and Dick Cheney are stealing so much ink and air-time with their own scandals and moronic defenses of their existence on the political scene . Or maybe it is just simply because Rumsfeld seems like old news - after all, he was fired by Bush on Election Day in 2006.

That said, there has been some fallout for 'Ol Rummy, as Bush has referred to him in the past. Within hours, Iraq War veteran, Jon Soltz of VetVoice.comripped into the Bush Administration for allowing the perception that the conflict in Iraq was, in fact a holy war, to trickle down the chain of command and to spread throughout the military.

Many others on the Left have pointed out just how damaging all of this could be, particularly because it will likely confirm some of the worst suspicions of those in the Muslim world that the United States Government has always viewed the War on Terror as a religious war. At the risk of making light of the situation, and to steal a phrase from the world of sports, this incident is the ultimate in bulletin board material for our enemies.

Sadly, however, cover sheet-gate was just the tip of the iceberg in Draper's 4,500-plus word piece. The rest of the piece paints Donald Rumsfeld as a man that was one of the primary causes of the downfall of the George W. Bush Administration - or at least that's what Draper's inside sources, who worked side-by-side with Rumsfeld and the former President told him:

My conversations with more than a dozen Bush loyalists, including several former cabinet-level officials and senior military commanders, have revealed another element of this legacy-building moment: intense feelings of ill will toward Donald Rumsfeld. Though few of these individuals would speak for the record (knowing that their former boss, George W. Bush, would not approve of it), they believe that Rumsfeld’s actions epitomized the very traits—arrogance, stubbornness, obliviousness, ineptitude—that critics say drove the Bush presidency off the rails.

You don't have to be an insider to understand that Donald Rumsfeld "epitomized" the absolute worst of the Bush Administration, but so far, in this post-Bush world, Dick Cheney is taking most of the heat for potential crimes and/or morally questionable behavior that took place during Bush's reign rather than the two-time Secretary of Defense.

But Cheney should not be the only target here, so maybe this minor bombshell is a good point to begin holding Mr. Rumsfeld accountable, not just for his Bible quoting cover sheets, but for his role in the larger issue surrounding those cover sheets, the Iraq War itself. And while we're at it, maybe a few questions about torture, North Korea and his opposition to rescuing Katrina victims are worthwhile.

Let's begin with the defining issue of the Bush/Rumsfeld years - Iraq. When exactly were plans for the invasion hatched? According to CBS, the afternoon of September 11, 2001, Secretary Rumsfeld was already thinking about attacking Saddam Hussein and overthrowing the Iraqi government. Notes taken by Rumsfeld's aides quote him as saying "Go massive. Sweep it all up. Things related and not." In that same set of notes he is also shown to have instructed the military to determine whether this was "good enough" to hit Saddam Hussein.

So why was Mr. Rumsfeld so quick to point to Iraq? Probably because invading Iraq was the plan from Day 1 in the Bush White house. According to Paul O'Neil, Treasury Secretary under Bush from 2001 - 2003, at the very first National Security Council meeting held during George W. Bush's administration, removing Saddam Hussein from power was "Topic A". When Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Ron Suskind wrote a book about O'Neil's experience, in which this was revealed by an insider for the first time, Mr. Rumsfeld called O'Neil and "warned" him not to go through with the book.

By the way, while we're on the subject of Iraq, one of the most memorable and insane quotes in regards to the post-invasion chaos and looting that erupted in Iraq came from the Secretary of Defense in 2003:

"Free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things. They're also free to live their lives and do wonderful things."

OK, so maybe it is unfair to characterize this quote as insane. Maybe, the reality is, that in Donald Rumsfeld's mind, people are really free to commit crimes and do bad things. The truth is, he has remained free to commit crimes and do bad things for most of his career, so why not the Iraqi people?

If Donald Rumsfeld is free to serve on the board of directors of a company that wins a $200 million contract to build North Koreaa nuclear reactor and then to turn around and score political points because of his opposition to North Korea's nuclear weapons program then why isn't some poor civilian in Baghdad free to bust into a museum and steal a few priceless and ancient artifacts?

The sale of the reactor to North Korea wasn't the only time in Rummy's career that he played both sides of the coin with one of the three nation's in Bush's "Axis of Evil". In 1983, Mr. Rumsfeld was serving as President Reagan's special envoy to the Middle East. During that time he met with Saddam Hussein and solidified U.S. support for Iraq in their war with Iran. He also acknowledged Saddam's use of chemical weapons, but made sure the Iraqi President knew that the Reagan Administration was willing to fight through that and continue to support him. Five years later, when Rumsfeld decided to run for president, he touted his efforts to normalize relations with Iraq as one of his greatest achievements.

Of course, since 1991 we haven't heard too much about all of that from Rummy, instead those chemical weapon attacks that he was willing to overlook in 1983 became one of his prime justifications for pushing the junior President Bush's war against Hussein.

Ironically, however, while the Sec. of Defense was completely willing to publicly trash Hussein for the atrocities he committed against his enemies, Rumsfeld just couldn't help but tearing one page from Saddam's playbook and using it himself - torture. According to a Senate report via Salon.com his aides "were already laying the groundwork for torture barely two months after the 9/11 attacks". The now-famous memos written by John Yoo and Jay Bybee, used to justify the Unites States' use of torture were made possible by Donald Rumsfeld.

In the end, though, it wasn't the shady deals with North Korea, or the embarrassment of torture, or even his role in the plotting of the Iraq War that brought the former DoD chief and possibly even President Bush down. Instead it was his work right here at home when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans that seems to have led to his eventual ouster the following year.

As New Orleans drowned, the Secretary of Defense just sat back and watched. When other Bush Administration officials urged him to get the military involved in the relief effort, he replied by telling them that "unity of command" issues were preventing him from moving and that the National Guard would be all that was necessary for the biggest natural disaster in our nation's history. It wasn't until five days later, when President Bush finally demanded action from Ol' Rummy that he finally deployed the troops. He was more concerned about maintaining his control over his perceived turf as Sec. of Defense than he was about protecting American lives - pretty typical according to the Draper piece.

In case this whole piece has not been clear enough, former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has never cared about anyone or anything other than the fattening of his wallet and the advancement of his career. That in itself, however, is not a crime. Most of us Americans suffer from greed and selfishness on a regular basis, but the difference between Donald Rumsfeld, and hopefully most of the rest of us, is that our greed and selfishness never became so great that we embarrassed our country, made millions off of corrupt dictators or sacrificed other people's lives in order to satisfy it.

Yes, Dick Cheney and George W. Bush should be held responsible for their crimes of the past eight years as well, but it is time for the mass media to stop giving Rumsfeld a relatively free pass. Hopefully Robert Draper has just put an end to that.

Ha! Looks like it so far AndrewT! Hope bout all the action on that poll though? Two weeks ago our poll had a thousand-plus responses, this week: four. Thanks, as always, for stopping by and keep up the good work.